


how to train your volstrucker

by musicalphrase



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Feelings Realization, Honey-Pot training, M/M, References to Abuse, References to dub-con, Seduction, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 08:20:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30018873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicalphrase/pseuds/musicalphrase
Summary: After their practical demonstration of magic, a new kind of training begins.
Relationships: Astrid/Bren Aldric Ermendrud, Astrid/Eodwulf/Bren Aldric Ermendrud, Eodwulf/Bren Aldric Ermendrud
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	how to train your volstrucker

**Author's Note:**

> Please heed the warnings, but also note: 
> 
> Bren never broke, and the Volstrucker training continued. While they are young, the characters in this story are considered adults, between the ages of 20-22.

The secret to seducing a mark was to be exactly what they expected of you.

And so when Wulf gazed over at Bren from atop his books, a complicated and unreadable look of fondness in his eyes, Bren took a heartbeat to feel confused before remembering his lesson from earlier.

_“When a man, particularly one that is used to using strength to his advantage shows an interest, it is wise to overplay the length of your limbs, the elegance of the line of your neck. Whatever it is that you know captivates them, exaggerate your motions through that particular part of your body. And never doubt the value of eye contact to show your intentions.”_

Now was as good a time as any to practice.

“Wulf, would you pass me a fresh quill,” Bren asked, his voice soft and velvety in the candlelight. Eadwulf managed to huff out a quick “Yeah, sure,” before he reached out with a new quill. Bren took it, being sure to let his fingers linger on the inside of Eadwulf’s wrist as the redhead met Eadwulf’s dark gaze intently.

“Danke,” Bren thanked, and Eadwulf nodded crisply.

“Of course,” he gruffed. Bren hid a smile.

This would be interesting.

~*~*~

Eadwulf knew that Bren was practicing seduction techniques on him, and it annoyed him to no end that it was working.

They had been friends forever. Been roommates through childhood, and all the hormone changes that came with growing. It wasn’t as if Eadwulf hadn’t noticed that Bren had grown into his face, that he had only grown more handsome with confidence. His eyes worked perfectly fine thank you.

But in the last few weeks, there had been something about Bren that had shifted, had become more dangerous and alluring. Like, after their practical demonstration of their arcane knowledge, Bren had found his footing and his confidence in his own power and control.

Their new course of study was probably also to blame. If Bren’s lessons were anything like Eadwulf’s one-on-one tutelage then, well.

It’s no wonder Bren had started moving like a jaguar instead of a housecat.

But just as Bren was learning about seduction, so was Eadwulf.

And two could play at this game.

~*~*~

_“A man like you needs to know when to showcase his strength and when to demonstrate his softness. There is very little that people find more alluring than a man who has the power to destroy but also holds an equal capacity to be soft. Determine what your mark values more, and lean into it. But don’t forget to remind them that you are capable of both.”_

The next time they were back in their dorm room studying, Eadwulf waited until Bren had settled at his desk before making a move.

“What are you working on?” Eadwulf asked, creeping up behind Bren, and pressing close to the redheaded man, skillfully ensnaring him against his desk. Bren tensed at the solid presence against his back, before relaxing and pressing himself against Wulf’s chest.

“I’m just fiddling with some transmutation spells. Seeing if I can tweak them to keep them functionally the same as the regular spells we’ve been learning,” Bren explained, tilting his head to the side as Wulf peered over his shoulder. “Mm. Wulf,” Bren started, and Eadwulf turned his head towards Bren’s, right as Bren turned to face Wulf. The movements meant that in the fluid space of a single second, they were suddenly breathing the same air.

“Yes?” Wulf breathed, the air from his exhale brushing like a promise over Bren’s lips. Bren found his gaze dipping down to trace over the fullness of Wulf’s mouth before swallowing.

“I was wondering when you’d be heading to the training ring to spar,” Bren murmured, transfixed by Wulf’s mouth. Eadwulf smirked.

“Soon. Why? It’s not like you can keep up with me?” he teased, a sharp twinkle in his eye. Bren smiled back, just as sharp and twice as dangerous.

“No. But I want to watch,” he replied, and Eadwulf found himself chuckling, gently pressing his shoulder into Bren’s back before straightening and moving towards his side of the room.

“Give me twenty minutes. I wanna get changed and stretched out first.”

And if Bren kept stealing glances as Eadwulf prepared for his workout, who was going to say anything, really?

~*~*~

“You know Bren, rumors around the school are that you and Wulf are getting up to something that will irreparably ruin our relationship,” Astrid said one night as Bren and she were laying in bed together. Bren paused in brushing his fingers over her bare arms for a moment, but it was enough for Astrid to feel victorious.

“Sassa, you know I wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t part of our training without telling you,” Bren replied, and Astrid snorted in a decidedly un-ladylike way. Ever the diplomat her Bren was.

“Don’t try to tell me you’ve never imagined it. How pretty he’d be, on his knees, begging? You’re one of the most observant men I know Bren, I know you see how well he responds to orders,” Astrid said as she shifted to look up at Bren. Bren, for his part, was looking out in front of him, eyes focused on some far-off point.

“Ja,” he conceded. “He has certainly come into his looks. But. Sassa, you know what we’ve been studying recently. It’s just practice.”

Astrid sighed and ran her fingers over Bren’s thigh.

“I’m just saying, Bren. I don’t think he would be… _unwilling_ to join us once in a while if we asked,” Astrid replied. Bren’s fingers resumed their pathway up and down her arm as he contemplated her words.

“I’ll think about it,” he said. Astrid ducked her head to hide her smile as she pressed a kiss against Bren’s hip. It was as close to a promise for follow-through as she’d get out of him right now.

~*~*~

It was another few weeks before it all came to a head.

Bren and Eadwulf had become masters at the lingering touches, gentle excuses to press close, the whispers of breath across sensitive skin. So it really came as no surprise, when between training sessions, Eadwulf had managed to crowd Bren up against the wall of one of the hallways in the academy, one arm resting on the wall behind Bren’s head. Bren, for his part, was leaning back, letting Eadwulf invade his space with an open and relaxed posture.

“You know, if you keep this up, I’m going to start believing you like me,” Bren teased as Eadwulf leaned in with a chuckle, nosing a bit at the underside of Bren’s jaw. He said nothing as he pulled back, searching Bren’s eyes.

Bren was captivated by the softness in Eadwulf’s eyes. It drew him in. Or rather, it was Eadwulf leaning closer, the softness darkening into something velvet and promising.

“Checkmate,” Bren whispered against Eadwulf’s lips as they brushed ever so lightly against his own. To his surprise, Eadwulf responded with a dark, heavy chuckle.

“Stalemate,” he corrected and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back; Bren leaned close and finished their game of chicken.

Neither man expected the fireworks across the insides of their eyelids as their lips greeted one another, for the first time with purpose, moving temptingly slowly, a lingering promise. Eadwulf found himself surprising himself as his hands drifted down Bren’s sides to gather up under his thighs as he _lifted_. Even more surprising was _Bren’s_ response – as Eadwulf lifted, Bren gave a small jump and wrapped his legs around Eadwulf’s waist, a soft keening noise in the back of his throat. Eadwulf smiled smugly into the kiss, pressing Bren back into the wall behind them before breaking their connection.

“So. When are you going to tell Astrid you’ve been toying with me?”

Bren threw his head back in a sharp dangerous laugh.

“As if she hasn’t already figured it out for herself. Besides. I’ve seen the way you’ve been watching her too,” Bren countered, a smug grin on his face. Eadwulf smiled back, toothy, dangerous, unrepenting.

“Guilty,” he confessed and Bren licked his lips at the thought.

“Tonight. I’ll bring Astrid to our rooms. We’ll sort it out.”

Eadwulf nipped a bite into Bren’s neck, right on the tendon behind his ear.

“I look forward to it,” he whispered before letting Bren go and pushing off the wall they had pressed up against.

As Bren watched Eadwulf leave, he took a deep breath to steady himself before righting his robes.

Later at dinner, while in the middle of laughing at something Astrid was saying about her day, Bren heard a message creep into his mind.

 _“Your instructors have said you are taking to your new lessons well. Well done on passing your first test.”_ As Bren looked up, he noticed Wulf staring into the middle distance, no doubt receiving a similar message from their Master. But as Wulf glanced up and met Bren’s eyes, Bren saw a hardened wall shutter behind his friend’s gaze.

“Eadwulf. What did he say?” Astrid asked, her keen gaze never missing much. Eadwulf’s attention turned to Astrid as his hands clenched around his cutlery.

“That there’s potential in my work but that I’m not meeting the expected standards,” he bit out and Bren’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

“That’s… not possible,” Bren said to his friend. “They just told me I passed with flying colours.”

He shouldn’t have said anything, Bren thought as he watched white-hot rage flicker over Eadwulf’s face. Throwing himself backward, Eadwulf stood and huffed out a quick “I’ll be in the sparring room,” before storming out of the mess hall. Bren watched, a pained grimace on his face as Eadwulf left the hall. Helplessly, he turned to Astrid, whose gaze was boring holes into his.

“Tell me what happened.”

So he did.

~*~*~

When she found him after dinner it seemed that he had been at the sandbag for the better part of the last hour.

She watched him for a minute as he poured out his frustrations into the sandbag. Hit after hit, never once losing intensity or power. He had to be exhausted, but here he was, sweat-slicked and relentless, continuing to hammer at the bag.

“Stop, or you’ll be useless in training tomorrow,” Astrid chided, and just like that, Eadwulf stilled, the angry line in his shoulders softening.

“Sassa,” Eadwulf bit out, and Astrid walked up to him, coming to stand before him and taking his hands. Gently unwrapping the bindings protecting his knuckles, she slowly inspected his hands, ensuring their bleeding had stemmed.

“His lessons have been on the manipulation of another’s emotions. It sounds like, intentionally or not, he worked his charm on you,” she explained. In the silence that greeted her, Astrid glanced up to see Eadwulf clenching his jaw and she let a soft sigh of exasperation escape her.

“I’m not blind. I’ve seen how you’ve looked out for him, reached out to him, protected him, our whole lives. Why didn’t you just say something to him?” Astrid explained calmly. Eadwulf turned his gaze away, and against all odds managed to clench his jaw tighter. Astrid let her hands drop to her sides. Eadwulf would speak when he was ready.

They stood like this, Eadwulf’s heavy breath hanging in the air between them. Finally, Eadwulf took a breath in.

“He told me that I failed because my feelings for the target were clouding my judgment. That in order to pass I’d have to pick a new mark,” he confessed and Astrid smiled sadly.

“Wulf, that’s not terrible. That’s not a reason to come down here to rip apart a sandbag. What else happened?” she pressed. Eadwulf released a sharp bark of humorless laughter.

“He passed Sassa. He has no such feelings for me. Once again, I’m left in your shadow.”

Astrid took a deep breath before nodding.

“Right.” And as Eadwulf stepped away Astrid spoke one more time.

“He does love you, Wulf,” she called into the space between them. Eadwulf paused and looked back at Astrid.

“But he’s _in_ love with you Astrid,” he replied.

Astrid didn’t have anything comforting to say to that. Not that it mattered; Eadwulf wouldn’t have given her the chance to anyway. 

~*~*~

Eadwulf didn’t return to their rooms that night.

Bren had waited. He had waited to talk to Eadwulf, and bring Astrid into whatever it was that was changing between them. But Eadwulf didn’t return to their dorms that night.

It was very early the next morning that Bren awoke to the sound of their dorm room door creaking open. Bren knew very well that Eadwulf knew how to move the door in a way to avoid the creaking, so it was clear that he had wanted Bren to know he had returned. As Bren cracked his eyes, he realized what exactly had kept his friend until this late (early?) hour.

The bite marks that littered Eadwulf’s neck were hard to miss, nearly black in their colouration. And as Eadwulf disrobed more evidence of his night’s proclivities revealed themselves to Bren. Long scratch marks littered his back, and the bruised marks on his neck traveled well below where his shirt would normally cover, and in fact, dipped past the waistband of his briefs. It wasn’t just the marks, Bren realized, but the liquid way Eadwulf was moving, with all the grace and poise of a satisfied hunter.

“Go to sleep Bren,” Eadwulf said into the dark, and it was then that Bren averted his gaze, rolled over in his bed, and tried to quell the hammering in his heart.

Sleep eluded him for the rest of the night.

~*~*~

The next morning, Eadwulf woke to the sound of a smug, proud voice in his mind.

_“Well done Eadwulf. This is what we meant by potential. Try to remember not to let feelings get in the way next time. You’ve passed.”_

He stayed in bed for much of the rest of the morning, the accomplishment weighing on his chest in a way it hadn’t since he had buried his first body.

“Volstrucker don’t have a heart,” he muttered to himself, curling tightly in on himself, hardening himself to the work that was out there waiting for him.

~*~*~

Bren was furious.

It was one thing to sneak in late at night. It was an entirely different thing to skip their studies, and their instructors seemed to be holding Bren responsible for his absent roommate.

So at lunch, he went back to their rooms. Eadwulf hadn’t moved since Bren left in the morning. And so the Scourger grit his teeth and stood at the foot of Eadwulf’s bed.

“Get up,” the firey redhead spit.

“No. I’m taking the day,” Eadwulf responded from somewhere beneath the pile of blankets that covered him from tip to tail. Bren clenched his fists at his sides.

“Get. Up. Eadwulf,” he hissed. Eadwulf untucked his head from his mountain of blankets, and if Bren were less angry he might have noticed that Eadwulf’s eyes were a bit red-rimmed. But as it stood, all he could see what the angry glint of challenge in the dark irises as Eadwulf shot back and angry “Make me,” to Bren’s demand.

They stayed like that, gaze locked for a moment before Bren was moving, and in one fluid motion had ripped the cover’s off of Eadwulf’s bed.

In the harsh light of day, the marks on Eadwulf’s body looked far less playful, and far, far more severe. What Bren had mistaken for scratches in the dark light of pre-dawn stood out against Eadwulf’s pale skin as deep gouges, made by a dull knife or sharp nails, Bren couldn’t tell. The bruises on Eadwulf’s body encircled deep, angry bite marks, humanoid, but clearly bites that had been so hard that teeth were still clearly visible these many hours later. Some of them even looked to have broken skin. And, whereas he missed it before, the skin around Eadwulf’s wrists had been rubbed raw in a way that Bren was intimately familiar – but why Eadwulf’s wrists had been bound with rough rope was escaping Bren’s rationale. 

“What happened?” Bren asked, his voice tight and angry, and just a shade confused. He _knew_ Eadwulf hadn’t had these marks before dinner. Where had them come from?

“I passed,” Eadwulf sneered. “Now give me my blankets back.”

It was as if a bucket of ice had been poured over Bren’s head, as all the dots connected.

He turned and left the room without another word.

_“People in positions of power don’t get there by being easy to manipulate. Oftentimes, one of the more pleasing aspects of their work is controlling and managing dangerous men. It is wise to give them the opportunity, bow to them in subservience and affection. Let them do as they wish, and, regardless of your own preference, always ask for more.”_

~*~*~

When he came back, it was with Astrid and medical supplies. Eadwulf had been sat up in bed after having picked up the blanket Bren had dropped on the floor, and upon seeing the determined glint in his friend’s eyes, Eadwulf let out a resigned sigh and shifted to the edge of his bed in preparation for their attentions.

“What did you do you, idiot,” Astrid said, as her calculating gaze raked over Eadwulf’s bruised and battered form. Bren, for his part, didn’t say anything as he began to organize the medical supplies on the bedside table by Eadwulf’s bed. As he reached over and took one of Eadwulf’s hands in his he began to clean the angry, raw marks on Eadwulf’s wrists. Eadwulf allowed the gentle touch, but his body language was reserved and tense, ready to pull back at a moment’s notice.

“I did what I had to do Astrid, to get a passing grade,” Eadwulf replied, his eyes glued to Bren’s movements. Bren said nothing, eyes focused on his work. A soft, small part of Eadwulf wished that Bren would look at him for a moment.

Astrid meanwhile had climbed onto the bed behind Eadwulf. Seeing the gouges there, she hissed before snapping her fingers at Bren for a warm compress. Bren passed one back to her over Eadwulf’s shoulder, and the pair worked to treat Eadwulf’s wounds for the better part of the next thirty minutes.

“I’m sorry.”

Eadwulf was feeling so cared for and fuzzy in the moment that he almost missed Bren’s whisper. Coming back to himself, Eadwulf looked up to see that Bren had finished cleaning and bandaging his wrists and the worse of the bite marks on his chest, and had taken to staring at a spot on Eadwulf’s chest.

“Are you injured anywhere else?”

Eadwulf understood the words that Bren was not asking, and a warm flush of appreciation pooled in his gut.

“Nein. This was it. It was just a test for our training Bren, I’m fine,” Eadwulf consoled, all the anger from the previous day vanished. The gentle brush of lips against his uninjured shoulder surprised Eadwulf and he flexed minutely before remembering where Astrid was.

“We can’t prevent this kind of attention from coming to you Wulf. But from now on, you come back to us when it’s over and let us take care of you,” Astrid commanded.

There was an unspoken shift happening in their relationship now, and Eadwulf swallowed hard at Astrid’s words. “Yes Ms. Beck,” he replied, and felt her lips linger over the back of his neck in approval.

After a pause, Bren stepped in and tilted Eadwulf’s chin up to look at him. Eadwulf, for his part, felt a thrill slide through him. From this vantage point, Bren was taller than him, and he looked up at his old friend through his eyelashes.

“This isn’t a game for me anymore Eadwulf. From now on, you will tell us when you have this work ahead of you. And you will listen to Ms. Beck, understood?” The shudder that rocked through him almost dislodged Astrid at his back for all its intensity. Once again, Eadwulf found himself swallowing hard, and he nodded.

“No. Say it.”

The command sent a bolt of heat right into his gut, and it took Eadwulf a moment to find his voice.

“J-Ja. Yes. Yessir,” he managed and the thumb that had been holding his chin in place brushed once gently over his lips.

“Good.”

It was all the warning he got before Bren’s lips were pressed against his.

And just like that, his world tilted sideways, caught as he was between fire and wind. Astrid’s hands had taken to brushing along his sides, taking care to not catch any of the fresh bandages secured there, and Bren…

Bren had taken this moment to lick into his mouth, all hot and demanding, and as Eadwulf shuddered, the fiery redhead drew back, his thumb returning to brush over Eadwulf’s lower lip, now glistening and spit-slicked. 

“I’m sorry it took me this long to get my head out of my ass,” Bren murmured. Eadwulf’s eyes fluttered closed at the purr of Bren’s voice. “But you’re ours now. You’ll go out and do your job, but you’re going to return to us when you’re done, do you understand me?”

“Y-Yes. Yes, Bren. _Gods_ -“ Eadwulf whimpered and Bren smiled.

“There are no gods here Wulf. Just me and Astrid. As long as you’ll have us.”

“Forever,” Eadwulf bit out, and he felt the chuckle against his neck.

“Don’t get greedy Wulf,” Astrid cooed in his ear. Bren smiled.

“Yeah. We’ll have to make you work for that kind of prize,” Bren teased.

Wulf whimpered at the threat of the promise.

_"It’s easy to lose sight of your goals in this line of work. So make sure you have something to come back to. Something that will ground you and your work. Be it your research, your house, or your companions. Find something that tethers you to reality and keep it in the front of your mind."_


End file.
